Sex specific genetic variances in life history and morphological traits ofthe seed beetle C. maculatus

• Knowledge of heritability and genetic correlations are of central importance in the study ofadaptive trait evolution and genetic constraints. We use a paternal half-sib-full-sib breeding designto investigate the genetic architecture of three life history and morphological traits in the seed beetle, Callosobruchus maculatus. Heritability was significant for all traits under observation andgenetic correlations between traits (rA) were low. Interestingly we found substantial sex-specificgenetic effects and low genetic correlations between sexes (rMF) in traits that are only moderately(weight at emergence) to slightly (longevity) sexually dimorphic. Furthermore we found anincreased sire (s2sire) compared to dam (s2dam) variance component within trait and sex. Our resultshighlight that the genetic architecture even of the same trait should not be assumed to be the samefor males and females. Furthermore it raises the issue of the presence of unnoticed environmental effects that may inflate estimates of heritability. Overall, our study stresses the fact that estimatesof quantitative genetic parameters are not only population, time, environment but also sex specific.Thus, extrapolation between sexes and studies should be treated with caution.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi -- Evolutionsbiologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences -- Evolutionary Biology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

additive genetic variance

genetic correlation

breeding design

sex specific genetic effect

sexual dimorphism

Zooekologi

Animal Ecology

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)